[chore] Delete language about vendor-specific components and obligate…

…d sponsorship (#35961)

I propose that we move to a purely voluntary sponsorship requirement
going forward.

---------

Co-authored-by: Evan Bradley <[email protected]>

.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/new_component.yaml

@@ -21,28 +21,18 @@ body:
       description: Any combination of traces, metrics and/or logs is valid here.
     validations:
       required: true
-  - type: checkboxes
-    attributes:
-      label: Is this a vendor-specific component?
-      description: A vendor-specific component directly interfaces with a vendor-specific API and is expected to be maintained by a representative of the same vendor.
-      options:
-        - label: This is a vendor-specific component
-        - label: If this is a vendor-specific component, I am a member of the OpenTelemetry organization.
-        - label: If this is a vendor-specific component, I am proposing to contribute and support it as a representative of the vendor.
   - type: input
     attributes:
       label: Code Owner(s)
       description: A code owner is responsible for supporting the component, including triaging issues, reviewing PRs, and submitting bug fixes.
         Please list one or more members or aspiring members of the OpenTelemetry project who will serve as code owners.
-        For vendor-specific components, the code owner is required and must be a representative of the vendor.
-        For non-vendor components, having a code owner is strongly recommended. However, you may use the issue to try to find a code owner for your component.
+        Having a code owner is strongly recommended. However, you may use the issue to try to find a code owner for your component.
   - type: input
     attributes:
       label: Sponsor (optional)
       description: "A sponsor is an approver who will be in charge of being the official reviewer of the code.
-        For vendor-specific components, it's good to have a volunteer sponsor. If you can't find one, we'll assign one in a round-robin fashion.
-        For non-vendor components, having a sponsor means that your use-case has been validated.
-        If there are no sponsors yet for the component, it's fine: use the issue as a means to try to find a sponsor for your component."
+        Having a sponsor means that your use-case has been validated. If there are no sponsors yet for the component,
+        it's fine: use the issue as a means to try to find a sponsor for your component. If you are unable to find a sponsor, the component can still live in your own source repository and can be included in Collector distributions using the Collector builder."
   - type: textarea
     attributes:
       label: Additional context

CONTRIBUTING.md

@@ -114,23 +114,12 @@ issue](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-contrib/issues/
 providing the following information:
 
 * Who's the sponsor for your component. A sponsor is an approver or maintainer who will be the official reviewer of the code and a code owner
-  for the component. Generally, you will need to find a sponsor for the component in order for it to be accepted. For vendor-specific
-  components, a sponsor may be assigned under certain circumstances. See additional details below.
+  for the component. You will need to find a sponsor for the component in order for it to be accepted.
 * Some information about your component, such as the reasoning behind it, use-cases, telemetry data types supported, and
   anything else you think is relevant for us to make a decision about accepting the component.
 * The configuration options your component will accept. This will give us a better understanding of what it does, and 
   how it may be implemented.
 
-### Vendor-specific components
-
-A vendor-specific component directly interfaces with a vendor-specific API and is expected to be maintained by a representative of the same vendor.
-It is always preferred to find a sponsor. However in an effort to ensure vendor neutrality, a sponsor will be assigned to a vendor-specific
-component using a round-robin fashion if the following circumstances are met:
-
-1. A member of the OpenTelemetry project proposes to contribute and support the component on behalf of the vendor.
-2. The proposed component is either a receiver or exporter. With this, we aim to foster an interoperable ecosystem.
-3. The vendor does not yet have a component of the same kind (receiver or exporter) in the repository.
-
 Components refer to connectors, exporters, extensions, processors, and receivers. The key criteria to implementing a component is to:
 
 * Implement the [component.Component](https://pkg.go.dev/go.opentelemetry.io/collector/component#Component) interface
@@ -250,29 +239,6 @@ After a component has been merged it must be added to the
 [OpenTelemetry Collector Contrib's release manifest.yaml](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-releases/blob/main/distributions/otelcol-contrib/manifest.yaml)
 to be included in the distributed otelcol-contrib binaries and docker images.
 
-### Rotating sponsors
-
-The following GitHub users are the currently available sponsors, either by being an approver or a maintainer of the contrib repository. The list is ordered based on a random sort of the list of sponsors done live at the Collector SIG meeting on 27-Apr-2022 and serves as the seed for the round-robin selection of sponsors, as described in the section above.
-
-* [@mwear](https://github.com/mwear)
-* [@djaglowski](https://github.com/djaglowski)
-* [@codeboten](https://github.com/codeboten)
-* [@mx-psi](https://github.com/mx-psi)
-* [@dmitryax](https://github.com/dmitryax)
-* [@evan-bradley](https://github.com/evan-bradley)
-* [@MovieStoreGuy](https://github.com/MovieStoreGuy)
-* [@bogdandrutu](https://github.com/bogdandrutu)
-* [@jpkrohling](https://github.com/jpkrohling)
-* [@dashpole](https://github.com/dashpole)
-* [@TylerHelmuth](https://github.com/TylerHelmuth)
-* [@fatsheep9146](https://github.com/fatsheep9146)
-* [@andrzej-stencel](https://github.com/andrzej-stencel)
-* [@songy23](https://github.com/songy23)
-* [@atoulme](https://github.com/atoulme)
-* [@crobert-1](https://github.com/crobert-1)
-
-Whenever a sponsor is picked from the top of this list, please move them to the bottom.
-
 ## Adding metrics to existing receivers
 Following these steps for contributing additional metrics to existing receivers.
  - Read instructions [here](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md#fork) on how to

README.md

@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@
   <strong>
     <a href="https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector/blob/main/docs/vision.md">Vision</a>
     &nbsp;&nbsp;&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;
-    <a href="https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector/blob/main/docs/monitoring.md">Monitoring</a>
+    <a href="https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector/blob/main/docs/observability.md">Observability</a>
     &nbsp;&nbsp;&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;
     <a href="https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector/blob/main/docs/security-best-practices.md">Security</a>
     &nbsp;&nbsp;&bull;&nbsp;&nbsp;
@@ -59,7 +59,7 @@ Some features are hidden behind feature gates before they are part of the main c
 
 Each component is supported either by the community of OpenTelemetry Collector Contrib maintainers, as defined by the GitHub group [@open-telemetry/collector-contrib-maintainer](https://github.com/orgs/open-telemetry/teams/collector-contrib-maintainer), or by specific vendors. See the individual README files for information about the specific components.
 
-The OpenTelemetry Collector Contrib maintainers may at any time downgrade specific components, including vendor-specific ones, if they are deemed unmaintained or if they pose a risk to the repository and/or binary distribution.
+The OpenTelemetry Collector Contrib maintainers may at any time downgrade specific components if they are deemed unmaintained or if they pose a risk to the repository and/or binary distribution.
 
 Even though the OpenTelemetry Collector Contrib maintainers are ultimately responsible for the components hosted here, actual support will likely be provided by individual contributors, typically a code owner for the specific component.